Method of cutting veneers.



No. 802,673. PATENTED OCT. 24, 1905. EH. YORK. METHOD OF CUTTING VENEERS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 22, 1905.

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awvewbcm WWI Leases Phineas H. York fli'dam 42 m M No. 802,678. PATENTED OCT. 24, 1905. P. H. YORK. METHOD OI CUTTING VENEERS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 22, 1905.

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wif1ggogg H m Phineas York UNIFIED 7 PHINEAS H. YORK, OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO JQHN H. TALG'E, OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

lllllETllOD 0F CUTTING VENEERSB Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 24;, 1905.

Application filed June 22,1905. Serial No. 266,379.

To (LZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PnINnAs H. YORK, a citizen of the United States, residing at Indian apolis, in the county of Marion and State of Indiana, have invented certain new and'useful Improvements in Methods of Cutting Veneers, of which the following is a specification.

In the production of quartered woods, especially quartered veneers, there is in the present methods a very decided waste of material; and my present. invention relates to an improvement in the art of producing quartered veneers by means of which a maximum amount of marketable well-figured veneers may be obtained in such manner that the remaining stock shall be left in a single piece, which may then be used for handle or floor stock and the like.

The accompanying drawings illustrate my improved method in connection with methods which have heretofore been followed.

Figure 1 is a section of a quarter-log, showing the earliest method of production of quarter-sawed lumber. Fig. 2 is a section showing the earliest method of cutting flitches for producing quartered veneers. Fig. 3 isasimilar section showing the tipping staylog method of producingquartered veneers; Fig. 4:, a similar view illustrating the method followed in the Talge Patent No. 720,985; Fig. 5, a similar section showing my improved method; Fig. (3, a view illustrating .the first step of my method; Fig. 7, a view illustrating the final step; and Fig. 8 a perspective view of a short flitch suitable for cutting according to my method, this flitch illustrating the usual arrangement of medullar rays found in ordinary White oak and the consequent figure which is produced by making a out which is substantially parallel with one or more of these medullar rays, thus producing the desired flake or figure.

Referring first to Fig. 8, it is to be noted that the wood consists of a great number of substantially concentric rings 10, which are produced from year to year as the tree grows, and these rings when out transversely will show on the cut surface substantially parallel longitudinal lines 11. Running through the wood along substantially radial planes are harder longitudinal planes or medullar rays 12, which begin at different distances from the center. An ideal growth of tree would produce medullar rays, which would be true planes; but such a condition never actually exists, the ray-planes being instead wrinkled or dimpled in both directions much as a verysoft cloth would be wrinkled when spread carelessly upon a plain surface. If a out be made longitudinally through the log on a line which closely approximates one or more of these medullar rays, the cut will pass through the ray-plane, cutting its high points, but of course missing its depressions, and where the cut passes only partially through the thickness of the ray-plane it will expose portions 13 of the ray-plane and other portions IA of the intervening material, so that the portions 13, being harder and smoother than the portions 14 and without grain indentations, will stand out as a figure or plurality of flakes, the size of the flakes depending upon the degree of approximation of the plane of out with the plane of the medullar ray. If, therefore, there is a portion in the medullar ray-plane which is substantially straight and the cuttingplane strikes this straight portion Within the thickness of the ray-plane, the flake produced will be correspondingly large. With this in mind it becomes apparent that the character of the figure will depend upon the degree of approximation of the cutting-plane with the medullar ray-planes, and as a large figure in quartered stock is ordinarily desired it becomes neeessary for the cutter to make as many .cuts as possible along lines which closely approximate the ray-planes.

Turning now to the remaining figures of the drawings, in Fig. 1 I have illustrated the original method of producing quarter-sawed lumber, 20 indicating one-quarter of a log, from one face of which several planks 21 were out until the last cutting-plane 22 became so far tangential that it no longer cut the medullar rays approximately in the plane thereof, but instead cut them transversely at such an angle that only very small portions of the rays were exposed by the out. At this point the figure is lost to such an extent as to be hardly noticeable. The remaining segment was then turned to a new cutting-plane 23 and the plurality of cuts 24 made, following which the remainder was turned to a new cutting-plane 25 and more cuts made.

In the early method of producing quartered veneer, as indicated in Fig. 2, the log was cut into a plurality of flitches 26, each of which had sides parallel to a central medullar ray 27, the similar intermediate flitch 26 having faces of a width equal to that required for commercial veneers. In this method a considerable number of waste segments 28 was produced, and in all cases there was a backing-board 29 left from each flitch, this backing-board always containing a good figure.

In the production of quartered veneers by means of a tipping stay log the method illustrated in Fig. 3 was generally followed. Here a segment or flitch 30 was taken generally having an angle of approximately fortyfive degrees, and the fiitch was tilted with relation to the cutter, so as to start with a cutting-plane which was substantially radial at some distance in from the first radial face, and with this cutting-plane a pluralityof cuts 32 was made; but approximately the first half of the total number of cuts parallel with this cutting-plane produced wholly uncommercial stock, because the width of the veneer was so little that material could not be used. In practice at the present time veneer less than seven inches wide is not considered commercial. W'hen the figure became small, the flitch was again shifted to a new cuttingplane and a plurality of veneers 33 produced, at least half of these veneers 33 being also uncommercial for the reasons already mentioned. The operation described was repeated parallel with a new cutting-plane 34, &c., as many times as was necessary to preserve the figure; but in all cases a backingboard 35 with the finest figure had to be left in order to serve as means by which the flitch was held onto the stay log. According to this method while a greater quantity of commercial veneers could be obtained than with the method illustrated in Fig. 2, the waste of stock was very material because of the large number of narrow and uncommercial veneers produced,and in addition to this the time consumed in the production of uncommercial stock was approximately equal to the time consumed in the production of commercial stock,and consequently the production of veneer was expensive. These methods are the ones ordinarily followed up to the present time, although in the patent to Talge mentioned there is described a method (illustrated in Fig.4) by which the waste of time and stock can be somewhat eliminated. In the Talge method the fiitch is presented to the cutter along the cuttingplane 41 for a few cuts.

ment 43 removedby a timber saw or cutter which is capable of removing the entire segment at one cut, if desired, or cutting it into commercial stock thicker than veneer, the final out of the timber being made at such a point as to produce a face on the fiitch of sufficient width to produce commercial veneers, and thereafter a plurality of veneers 44 are removed. The flitch was shifted from time to time and the operation already described repeated. By this method much of the time theretofore consumed was avoided, and the stock from which veneers could not be made was partially saved; but a backing-board 45 was still lost from the best figured portion of the wood. By all of these methods the beveled edge on each veneer is quite long, thus materiallyreducing the commercial width of the veneer.

My improvement consists in taking afiitch of comparatively small angle, as indicated in Fig. 5, and holding this fiitch on a flitch: table 51, preferably by means of a long dog 52, so that one face of the flitch is parallel with the cutting-plane. I then remove from this face a plurality of veneers 53, taking as many cuts as possible within the limit of the figure. The remaining segment is then turned in the dogs so as to present the other radial face of the flitch, and a second series of veneers 54 is taken from the flitch. This leaves a single wedge 55 as a remainder of the fiitch, the width of face of this remainder being just within the commercial width of veneers-2'. e. about seven inches. This method, therefore, puts the entire non-veneer-producing portion of the flitch into one piece, which need not be operated upon at all, thus saving the waste of time and putting all waste stock into the largest possible piece, this waste taking the place also of the backing-board.

The angular dimension of a flitch suitable for my method will vary inversely with the diameter of a log, but in all cases will be com paratively small. By this I mean that the angular dimension of flitches taken from a given log should be such that a maximum number of well-figured slices of commercial width may be taken from each face and so that when the last veneer is cut the width of the faces of the remaining segment will be ing' a segmental flitch of comparatively small In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my angle, removing from one face a plurality of hand and seal at Indianapolis, Indiana, this IO veneers and thereafter removing a pllurality 4th day of llflay, A. D. 1905.

of veneers from the other face to sum an ex- *1 r tent as to leave a remainder which consists of PIHNEAE 1 a medial segmental piece, the sides of Which W'itnesses:

have a Width less than commercial veneer ARTHUR M. I-looD,

width. J AMES A. VVALsi-I. 

